August 16, 2008
Health Care Action Plan
Health care is a vital issue facing Americans today. I remember reading the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and how the people in the book couldn’t miss work even when they were horribly sick for fear they would lose their jobs. There were just too many people looking for work. Employers could treat their employees like dirt and get away with. I see a terrible trend going back there. Think about the stories you’ve heard about Walmart and how they treat their employees, especially when it comes to health care.
The statistic we all keep hearing is the one about 50 million Americans who have no health insurance at all. What we don’t hear as much about is the people who have health care who still can’t afford to get sick and who scrape by every month to pay medical expenses. As Americans we cannot let this become an issue of rich against poor or our country against other nations. The fact is we are the only developed nation that does not have universal health care and that doesn’t make us more powerful, it makes us less.
- Support Universal Health Care For All Americans – It is our duty to fight for free health care for everyone in our country. Until we can go about our lives without fear that we will get sick or injured and lose everything we’ve worked for, the American Dream will never be realized. Write every representative and start demanding this be a bigger issue in your local politics. If the Federal government isn’t ready to stand up to the drug companies and the AMA, then maybe we can get our cities and states to do it and eventually the federal government will feel the pressure from the states to jump on board. Your job is to start making phone calls, writing letters, sending emails, and getting petitions signed. Get free health care amendments on your local ballots. Get your friends and family to help. We’ll make a difference if we all fight together.
- Eliminate Price Gouging On The Part Of The Pharmaceutical Companies – Drug companies go to get great lengths to make sure we pay as much as possible for their drugs. They consistently change their formula only a little bit to insure no exact generic can be produced. We have to demand that there be a cap to how much profit drug companies can make off medications that are necessary for people’s lives and well-being. If the choice is pay $200 a bottle or risk death….well what person should have to make that choice? Especially with the economy the way it is now when people are forced to choose between medicine and food – it isn’t right and it isn’t American. Even with health insurance, my family pays $150 a month for necessary prescriptions. With an already hand to mouth budget, that means something else doesn’t get paid. Hopefully something can be done soon but again it’s going to take a lot of phone calls, letters, speeches, and petitions to get it done.
- Promote Free Prevention Programs – some of these are already in place but more are needed. Americans need to be shown step-by-step how to prevent the chronic problems plaguing our country today like obesity, heart disease and substance abuse. The great thing is you can start these programs yourself by doing the research, putting together the materials and inviting people to hear you talk. Schools will usually allow you to use a room for nothing if it’s for a good cause, so ask your local high school to use their cafeteria or auditorium.
Together we can remind the world what makes America great – the high value we place on each and every one of its citizens, no matter the sex, race, creed, or social status.
